Three Poems | Yelena Moskovich

THE CALLING

To piss

(my bladder

is all blabber)

or not to piss ─

The calling!

Navel to the floor,

the stall door

stalling ─

Flores

for four-eyes,

senile love and loss,

seasons,

the cold tiles,

rosebuds in the frost.

ROCKET

Salved

whole

Theol-

sleeved,

halved

cattle,

Babel

bawled.

Gnat-

rimmed

bucket.

Star-

skinned

rocket.

VADIM

I.

The waves crack

like peeling an egg,

water legs,

toenails black,

toenails blanc,

not a spec,

you dawdle slack,

pooling shoulders, your own

dream,

Vadim,

a trim

would do you good,

do good, Vadim,

in between ─

II.

Water chips

into shells

heads or tails

they flip,

made,

not a shred

mad, your bed

dingy shade

swollen shack,

give back

Vadim,

a cure,

it is, it seems ─

could.

III.

Lip-wrecked,

a boy webbed

to a boy wept

where the waves crack,

threads

at the bottom,

noctem

water-bells,

done day,

dumb clay,

whitecap

vaulted ─

Dream,

Vadim.

Yelena Moskovich is a Ukrainian-born writer, author of four novels, Nadezhda in the Dark, A Door Behind A Door, Virtuoso, and The Natashas. She immigrated to the U.S. with her family as Jewish refugees in 1991, then solo to France in 2007 and back to the U.S. in 2024. Her work has been long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize, awarded the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and named in the Guardian, Telegraph, and Irish Times Books of the Year. She's also written about literature, arts and culture in publications such as Vogue, Times New Supplement, Paris Review, Frieze, and the New Statesman. She has spoken extensively on the topic of diaspora writing and experimental literature as a keynote speaker, panelist, and guest author on platforms such La Grande Librairie on Channel France5, the National Centre for Writing in Norwich, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, as well as chaired literary events for the Shakespeare & Company Bookstore in Paris.